Friday, June 29, 2012

Dinner Casters

The practice of providing
condiments to accompany a meal dates back many centuries. Salt first appeared on banquet tables during
the Middle Ages, when it was a luxury restricted to the nobility. Because of its significant status, salt was
served from large-scale vessels crafted from precious metals such as gold and
silver. Known as salts or salt cellars,
these highly treasured containers were periodically embellished with jewels,
semi-precious stones and colored enamels.

Set of Three Casters

Made by Anthony Nelme (active 1685, died 1722)

1684–1685

London

Silver

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Around the middle of the seventeenth century, table articles for shaking or "casting" pepper,
dry mustard and sugar emerged alongside the salt cellar. Casters, as they were termed, had the
appearance of oversized salt-and-pepper shakers, featuring a tall body
surmounted by a domed lid pierced with openings. Typically fashioned from silver, the casters
were made in sets of three, the tallest holding sugar.

In the eighteenth century cut-glass cruets, or bottles, for oil and vinegar joined the trio of silver
casters. The five containers were
arranged neatly in a silver stand referred to as a cruet frame, which consisted
of a base raised on feet and a framework of small rings to hold the cruets and
casters. By the late eighteenth century,
casters and cruets alike were made of cut glass and all five bottles rested in
a silver cruet frame enclosed by a low gallery.

Cruet Frame with Casters and
Cruets

Made by Robert Peaston (active
1756–1766)

1762–1763

London

Silver, glass

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, NY

Trencher Salt

Made by Thomas Ash (active 1652–1715)

1714–1715

London

Silver

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Throughout the eighteenth century, salt continued to be served from salt
cellars, which were simpler and much smaller in scale than in previous
centuries and typically made in pairs or sets of four.

By the Victorian period, condiments such as salt, pepper, sugar and mustard were no longer the expensive commodities they had been in previous centuries, when they were available to only the wealthy. Consequently these condiments appeared on the dining tables of middle-class families.

In the second half of the
nineteenth century, the cruet frame and bottles evolved into the “dinner
caster,” a stand arranged with the traditional glass cruets for oil and
vinegar, but now including glass casters for several types of pepper and a
lidded glass pot for prepared mustard.
The sugar caster disappeared from the set. The most expensive dinner casters were made of
silver. From 1850 to 1900, the vast
majority were produced in Britannia metal, a silver-white
alloy, or silverplate, making them affordable for the middle-class dining
table.

In the middle decades of the
nineteenth century, the silverplate stand typically featured decoration derived
from one of the many revival styles popular at the time such as Gothic, Rococo
or Renaissance. After 1880, the stands
reflected the influence of the Aesthetic Movement, adopting Eastlake or
Anglo-Japanese motifs, while the bottles--traditionally of clear glass with cut
decoration--were frequently made of the new varieties of colorful
"Art" glass. In 1857, Roswell Gleason and Sons, silverplate manufactures in Dorchetser, Massachusetts, obtained a patent for the design of an innovative
dinner caster with revolving compartments that opened simultaneously to reveal
the glass bottles inside.

Salt continued to be served from
salt cellars, which were made of silver, silverplate, cut glass or pressed
glass. The salts were placed at regular
intervals along the length of the dining table, at the corners or diagonally
across from each other if there was only a pair, while the dinner caster stood
in the center of the table.

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About Me

Walter G. Ritchie, Jr. is a decorative arts consultant and independent scholar specializing in nineteenth-century American architecture, interiors, and furniture. He writes, lectures, and teaches courses on a variety of decorative arts subjects in addition to organizing decorative arts exhibitions for museums; researching and developing furnishings plans for the restoration of period rooms in house museums; and cataloging furniture and other decorative arts for auction houses. Mr. Ritchie has taught courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels on subjects including American and European decorative arts and the restoration of historic interiors. He has lectured at a number of museums including the Smithsonian Institution; written a weekly antiques column; and contributed articles to a variety of arts and antiques magazines. He is currently researching and writing a book on the nineteenth-century New York City cabinetmaking and interior decorating firm of Pottier and Stymus.